Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
More than Mahomes
Chiefs’ defense dominates Jaguars
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes finally had thrown an interception, the first all season for the Chiefs’ talented young quarterback, and the Jacksonville offense had shuffled back onto the field.
The Chiefs immediately strip-sacked Blake Bortles to take the ball right back.
Their beleaguered defense also picked off Bortles four times and sacked him five, and Chris Jones took one of those interceptions back for a touchdown during a 30-14 romp over Jacksonville on a soggy Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium
The Chiefs are more than the explosive offense they displayed in the first four weeks of the season.
“It shows what kind of team we are,” said Mahomes,
who finished with 313 yards passing and ran for a touchdown. “I’m just excited to come out with a win on a day the defense made plays.”
The league’s highest-scoring offense still made its fair share.
Kareem Hunt ran for 87 yards and a touchdown, and Travis Kelce hauled in 5 catches for 100 yards, helping the Chiefs (5-0) move the ball at will against the NFL’s top-rated defense.
Tyreek Hill, who was frequently matched up with the Jaguars’ Jalen Ramsey in an entertaining one-on-one affair, added 4 catches for 61 yards as the Chiefs rolled up 424 yards total.
“That play calling was something I’ve never seen before,” said the Jaguars’ Tashaun Gipson, who picked off Mahomes before leaving with a groin injury. “Tip your hat to them. Obviously, the offensive personnel they’ve got — they came out here and they beat us.”
The game eventually grew into a testy affair, resulting in a pair of ejections.
Jones was booted in the second half after he dropped an elbow on a Jaguars lineman while both were on the ground after an extra-point attempt. Then, pass rusher Dee Ford joined him in the locker room when he was whistled for his second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
“You can’t let emotions get the best of you,” Chiefs Coach Andy Reid said.
If anybody had reason to get frustrated it was Bortles, who was 33 of 61 for 430 yards with a touchdown and those 4 interceptions. Most of his yardage came in garbage time, and while he ran for a touchdown, he also was stripsacked during Jacksonville’s
miserable first half.
Mahomes led the Chiefs for 73 yards on their first possession, finishing the drive himself with a short scramble for a touchdown. Then he led the league’s high-powered offense 82 yards for a field goal a few minutes later, leaving Jacksonville’s vaunted defense second-guessing itself.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars’ offense was having all kinds of problems.
Jacksonville (3-2) drove inside the Kansas City 5 early in the second quarter, but an incomplete fade on third down and another incompletion on fourth turned the ball over. Bortles was stripped on the first play of their next possession, and he threw the pick6 to Jones on the first play of the next.
The calamitous half ended when Bortles, trying to force a pass into the end zone, instead bounced it off his offensive lineman’s helmet and right to Steven Nelson for another interception.